What is going on in Newport RI

The Ivy Lodge offering midweek golf package at the Newport National Golf Course

Marveling at the hulking yachts that dominate the docks or waiting in line to tour one of the 19th century mansions on Bellevue Avenue, it is easy to become convinced that this town is only for the obscenely rich to participate in. Let the common man gawk!

Only Newport's long past that Vanderbilt stage, especially when it comes to golf. The late 19th and 20th century summer leisure spot of choice for American royalty actually offers some good golf with great prices for the budget minded golf player. With the addition of Newport National Golf Club in 2002, there are now a half-dozen worth while plays within 30 minutes or less from the Ivy lodge, Newport RI. Once you've experienced a Newport golf course, you can come back year after year and never play the same course twice. Newport is a great place to relax by the ocean as you get your swings in.

"Since the U.S. Women's Open (summer 2006), more and more people are finding out about Newport and its golf," said Judy Cournoyer, a local 2-handicaper. "Newport's not just a place to sit by the water. You can go to the local theater, get a great meal, play some tough courses."

Newport's for the average hacker. Who would have ever thought that?

Must play:

Newport National Golf Club: Some local dedicated duffers like Joe Sousa call this 7,244-yard, Arthur Hills design "the best course in Rhode Island." That may be going a little overboard. It's no Newport Country Club, the town's 112-year-old historic and very-members-only wonder near the ocean.

But there's little doubt Newport National is one of the top courses you can play. Pulling up in the small stone-covered parking lot, having made a turn off a main throughway that's easily missed, your expectations are hardly sky high. It only takes a few holes of battling the knee-high fescue to change that.

It's easy to get lost in your game at Newport National. Not so easy to score well. The slope rating is a hair-raising 138 with greens that love to kick off shots.

. . . Of course -- if you stay at the Ivy Lodge - we have special pricing arrangements: